Because I’ve been asked this a few times in the last week, I’m devoting a bit of space here to answer it. It’s a valid question; I am the first to say that “volunteering at an orphanage” simply doesn’t cut it.

So, here’s a bit of a skeletal answer for you.

• We left the states on a Thursday and flew to China on a very long flight (14ish hours).
• We arrived in Beijing on Friday evening to a hotel with the best coffee.
• On Saturday, we visited the Great Wall and the pearl market to get some cultural experience, adjust to the time change, and spend some time together as a team before we start serving. Some team members tried to host a bowling tournament that night; only the two of them showed up.
• On Sunday, we returned to the Beijing airport and flew to Xian, the capital of Shaanxi (2 1/2 hour flight).
• We were picked up by orphanage staff members in a van a wee bit too small for us and drove another 2 1/2 hours to where the orphanage is.
• Every morning, we enjoyed a Chinese buffet breakfast at our hotel from about 7am-8am complete with noodles, steamed puns, and popcorn. We all became friends with the egg-cooking lady.
• Every morning, at 8am, we spent time together in one of our rooms to prepare for the day.
• At 8:30, the orphanage van picked us up at our hotel and drove us to the orphanage about 10-15 minutes away. We were always greeted at the door and given shoe covers and then ushered into a reception room for hot tea. After we sipped a bit, we divided up into our prearranged teams and went to our rooms of kids (we served in four different rooms organized by age from newborns through about four-ish. Each room had about 20 children.)
• From 8:30-11am, team members rocked babies, played with children, and built friendships with the working staff sans an interpreter…which is awesome. As the leader, I rotated around, spent a lot of time with officials, and pulled our team members with medical backgrounds to assess particular kids, etc. with the interpreter…which was awesome.
• At 11am, we gathered again as a team in the reception room and then walked over to a room in another building where the orphanage served us lunch (which was fantastic food).
• After lunch, at about 11:45, the van returned us to our hotel for a lunch break (why are we basically the only country where siestas aren’t the norm? Geesh.).
• At 2pm, we returned to the orphanage where we were always greeted at the door and given shoe covers and then ushered into a reception room for hot tea (you may be seeing a pattern here). The room teams would go back to where they were serving for the afternoon.
• At 4pm, we would all gather again and join a group of eager older kids ranging in age from 8-12 who were a part of the photography workshop we offered for the first time, thanks to the incredible photographer and personal friend Ben Leaman and his wife Abbey. (Another post forthcoming to explain the photography workshop in more detail, but I will tell you now that it was incredible.)
• After the photography workshop, we would leave the orphanage around 5pm and return to the hotel where we would drop off our things and then head out for dinner which was always an adventure.
• Every night after dinner, we would spend a bit of intentional time together as a team.
  Team members would promptly collapse…except for Ben who spent about an hour and a half every night editing photos for the photography workshop.
• When the week was over, we spent basically one afternoon in Xian and one evening in a glorious hotel with a shower that I wish I could have packed in my suitcase to take home with me.
  On Sunday, the team tearfully flew back to Beijing and then changed terminals to fly home. A few of us spent a few extra days there, but most everyone flew home then, 10 days after arriving and wondering if they would ever be the same.

Those are the summed up logistics, the entire trip in a little post in finite words with a whole lot of inherent gaps called “volunteering at an orphanage.”

I’m a new woman today.

6 days post China and I finally feel myself again. 10 hours of uninterrupted sleep last night may have something to do with it. I woke up ready to jump up, open my curtains wide, and sing The Sound of Music or some Chinese equivalent. But, saying that I’m “feeling myself again” and finally getting back to “real life” just doesn’t seem totally fitting. I’ve been to China a few times now. And, I’ll be going there a few more times. And, every time I go, I feel like I come back changed. I can’t help but come back changed because while I’m there I encounter Him and experience the world in a way that demands a response, demands a change within me. I can’t come home and put my best pictures into a photo album that sits on our coffee table for guests to admire. I didn’t go to China to take neat pictures of a fog-covered Great Wall and meet cute kids.

I went to China to be a part of His story by entering into their story and allowing them to be a part of my own.

We blew a lot of bubbles and drew a lot of chalk sunshines.

 

We watched some serious dancing.

I played musical chairs…and lost.

We rocked babies and prayed a lot of blessings.

We told children who know they are different that they were beautiful.

Above else, we built relationships. We gave our hearts away. We fell in love…with them…with the ones He loves…with those He has called to care for them…with the One who made all things who we see more clearly and understand more deeply because He allowed us to see a glimpse of Him there.

Today marks 6 days after coming home from China, and I’m feeling myself not again but for today, right where He wants me to be, knowing that our God is sovereign over all things everywhere and that He is for the fatherless, that He is close to the brokenhearted, and that He redeems all things.

I’m feeling myself now.